


Powder Keg

by sightandsound3733



Series: Guns For Hire AU [6]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe, Guns For Hire AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-10
Updated: 2015-02-10
Packaged: 2018-03-11 12:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3327041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sightandsound3733/pseuds/sightandsound3733
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>York just wants to find Epsilon, and get him back to his family. Is that really so much to ask? Can't things ever go smoothly?</p><p>Apparently they can only get worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Powder Keg

York was very good at his job. **  
**

Everyone could make their remarks about how he had a tendency to trip the fucking higher tech locks, or that fate loved to treat his jobs like the world’s most suspenseful piece of crap action movie, but they all knew that he was one of the best for hires for infiltration on the market.  
  
That being said, he fucking hated the research and bullshit aspect of the job.  
  
There was a goddamn reason he left this bullshit to Connie and Florida, it was so tedious and boring. He’d much rather be running drills with Carolina or distracting Wash, or teasing North. Or any other number of things.

God really anything but this.

“Oh come on Connie. Do you really expect me to believe that you trust a single word out of Vic’s mouth?” York asks, skeptical and oh so bored as he squints at the message from the rat on the readout of Connie’s comm. She rolls her eyes in response, reaching over the console to throw a pair of reading glasses at him.  
  
“Put them on, before you go completely blind and Wash whines at me for not enforcing you against your own vanity and stupidity,” Her voice is sharp, but her eyes are soft with enough concern that the only thing he can really do is sigh and shove the glasses on. He fucking hated them so much. But doctor’s orders, ones that Carolina and Wash were not above guilting him into following, and the fact that they actually do help with the headaches and the ache left over from the extra strain on his good eye have stopped him from ditching the damn things off a rooftop.   
  
Once he’s settled back in the chair, reading the message more easily now with his glasses on Connie is happy to continue. “I don’t trust Vic for shit, but I can trust that he’s afraid enough of tasting the steel of my knives to not feed me bad info.”  
  
“But it’s Vic. He’s a rat, Connie, and we all know he’s still on the leash of the crime families,” York sighs, handing back over her comm. “And what he said? To check Invention? So not even useful. Everyone knows that’s the abandoned industrial district, shit is so unstable there from the plague clouds eating at the foundations.”  
  
“And?”  
  
“And you know as well as I do that the minute anyone did anything over there people would know about it. It’s a complete dead zone, even the dealers don’t go there.”  
  
“Well it couldn’t hurt to consider it, there’s nothing here in Gulch,” Connie shrugs, frowning as she hooks her comm up to the main monitor of her computer, uploading the messages from all her contacts onto a more secure server. “And Florida’s been sniffing around Armonia for days and even he’s coming up with nothing. Invention is the only other possible lead we’ve got so far.”  
  
“Wyoming’s at Sidewinder,” York reminders her. “He thinks he’s got a track on someone who can help there.”  
  
“Wyoming has shit people skills.”  
  
“He’s the best tracker we’ve got,” He sighs rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “God we’ve got to be able to fucking find something. There’s no way Epsilon just up and disappeared without a trace.”

  
There was a pause, long and tense enough that York can’t help but glance to Connie. She’s working idly with the keyboard, checking that everything is transferring smoothly, but she’s got her lower lip worried between her teeth. There’s something she’s not saying.   
  
“…What?”  
  
“It’s nothing,” She doesn’t stop with her lip. It’s nothing his ass. After a minute more Connie sighs and looks to him. “Alright look. I just… What if Epsilon did just up and leave? On purpose? What if this was him… cutting ties and ditching his siblings?”  
  
York blinks at her.   
  
“One, that is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. You know how important family is to them,” His voice is soft, serious and she sighs at him before he continues. “Two, he’s twenty. Where the hell is he gonna go where even we can’t track him down?”  
  
“If someone wants to disappear they can make it happen, York.”  
  
“Well that’s not the case here alright?” York crosses his arms and frowns at her deeply. Before either of them could say anything else there was a sharp pinging alerting him to a call coming in over his own comm system. “It’s Delta.”  
  
“Good luck telling him we’ve still got fucking nothing,” Connie shakes her head with another sigh, focusing up at her monitor now. York ignores her, reach for a headset to sync to his comm’s signal instead of scrambling to fetch his helmet.   
  
“What’s the word, D?” His voice is calm and easy when he answers the call, smiling at the slight crackle in response as both connections sync and settle, the sound letting him know that Delta was calling from the comm unit in his helmet.  
  


“I never know quite how to respond to you when you answer like that,” Delta sounds just as tired as he’d been the other day, tired in a way that he’d never been before in all the time York had know him, even with all the running around he did and looking after the kids. It was a new bone deep exhausting that you could just see gnawing away at him. York hated it.

“Just a hello is fine, D. Super informal over here, you know that,” York leans back in his chair, trying to get comfortable, eyes focused on Connie’s screen, scanning the message from her contact up in Upper Gulch, where the university Epsilon took classes was. “So what’s up?”  
  
“I was just on my way back from running some errands and thought I’d check in,” Delta was clearly walking as he spoke, the slight unsteadiness in the cadence of his tone being enough to determine that.  
  
“You got the kids with you?”  
  
“No, I’m on my own,” Delta sighs. “Omega took the day off to watch the others so I would be able to run out and speak to a few of my professors. Online courses make my life world’s easier, but sometimes it is best to clarify certain points or assignments in person.”  
  
“Good for you, Delta,” York leans forward, pointing to one message from 479 about some rumors she’d heard about the start up of some underground human trafficking groups looking for runners. Connie’s mouth twisted disdainfully, and she set the message aside, making a note to look into it for Epsilon. God York hoped that wasn’t the shit they were dealing with. “Man, you deserve some time to yourself.”  
  
“I hardly feel comfortable leaving for long periods of time,” Delta sighs, the truth of those words clear in his voice. “I’ve hardly spent a day away from the twins since they were infants. And with Epsilon gone…” Was York imagining it or did it sound like Delta had picked up the pace of his steps.  
  
“D…” York sighs, pushing the glasses up his face so he can rub at his eyes. “You deserve a break every now and again. Or you know, at all. That would be good. You don’t need to feel guilty for taking part of a day to yourself.”  
  
“I don’t feel guilty.”  
  
“You are such a shit liar,” York sighs again, more pronounced and exaggerated than really necessary. Delta too sighs in response and Connie rolls her eyes at him.  
  
“Leave him alone,” she mutters. “He’s not going to listen to you. Otherwise he’d bring the kids by more often so we could help with them.”  
  
“Connie says you’re stubborn and you should come by with the kids more.”  
  
“That was a paraphrase. Don’t do that,” she kicks at the leg of his chair, nearly sending him sprawling, but he recovers smoothly. York sticks his tongue out at her, flipping her off to the tune of another sigh from Delta which get him to turn his attention back to their phone conversation.  
  
“D, seriously. With your schoolwork, taking care of the kids, and dealing with your brothers on a daily basis in addition to what’s going on with Epsilon you need a break. Honestly, just drop by more. We’d all love to see you.” York pauses and then grins. “In fact I can think of one person in particular who’d love to see more of you.”  
  
“York,” God, he can almost hear Delta blushing. “Don’t, it’s not fu—”  
  
“I’m not trying to be funny. All I’m saying is that certain people, one person in particular, would be excited to know you were going to be dropping by more. One certain big guy that we all know and are slightly afraid of at time…”  
  
“Maine and I are simply friends, York,” Delta sighs into the phone.  
  
“There is nothing simple about that situation,” York counters, leaning forward on the desk now. “Honestly D, I don’t get the issue anymore. You’re twenty one now. It’s not like when you were barely legal.”  
  
“Oh my God,” Connie looks torn between groaning and laughing. “You’re such a fucking teenager. Leave him alone!” York flips her off again, turning away from her with a hand pressed to the headset earpiece so he can pick up on Delta as he goes quiet.   
  
“D?”  
  
Instead of an answer, all he hears is the sound of something hitting pavement. York frowns. He doesn’t even have enough time to form a question before Delta speaks. “The seal’s broken on the front door.”  
  
His voice is hushed, and he sounds so small and scared. York goes rigid in his chair.  
  
“What?”  
  
“The door… someone broke into the house,” Delta’s breathing hitches and York can hear him moving. “York the seal on the door is broken, and someone broke into the house. I can’t hear the kids, I don’t see my brothers, I—”  
  
“Do not go inside!” York orders. His voice cracks like a whip and Connie looks to him, eyes wide. It’s clear that Delta was ignoring him, maybe he couldn’t even process that York was talking. “Delta!”  
  
“My God,” Delta breathes out, clearly shaken. “I…there’s blood I-” York can hear him moving through the house, panicking. He storms up the stairs, calling for his siblings. “Theta? Omega?!”  
  


“York what's going on?” Connie asks. "What's wrong?"

York was already on his feet, ignoring her and running out of the room and down the hallway, his helmet gripped tight in one hand, his free hand pressed to the headset receiver in his ear. He needed to get to the house.

Connie was calling after him from the control room, but he couldn’t care less, not with an all too familiar sinking instinct and the ice in his veins that he rarely felt outside of a job. He needed to fucking move, something was wrong.

"Delta! Fucking answer me!"  
  
“York…”  
  
Oh thank God, an answer. “Delta! Get out of the house!” He runs to the garage and grabs the keys to one of the bikes, jamming his helmet on and hitting the button to open the door and the airlock.  
  
“York there’s…” He’s crying. Delta is crying now and York feels sick. He kick starts the bike, hitting too hard on the pedal and worrying for a split second that it won’t start before the bike roars to life and he can speedsout of the garage.   
  
“D, I need you to calm down,” York tries to stay calm, tries not to let panic bleed into his voice. “Can you hear me? Do you understand.”  
  
“I.. they’re gone, York I don’t know what—” Whatever Delta was going to say is cut off abruptly by a cry of pain, followed by the muffled thump of someone falling to the floor.   
  
“Delta?” No answer. “Delta!” York demands, frantic now as he speeds through the streets as fast as he can. There’s a storm coming, he knows that, he can see it in the sky already and the everyone’s cleared the streets. “Fuck, Dela answer me!” Instead of an answer, there’s the a loud fizzle of static before the call goes dead.  
  
York curses and tries to reconnect the call, but Delta’s line isn’t even in service anymore. He feeds the bike more gas before he’s sick and he races through the empty streets.  
  
Something was fucking wrong, something far worse than he already thought.   
  
The Ai house isn’t far from the base, but it feels like the longest trip of his life as he pulls the bike up to the house. There’s a bag of groceries abandoned on the front steps. Delta’s groceries, shit. He didn’t even grab a gun, fuck what the hell was he supposed to do?  
  
“Fuck it,” York mutters, throwing down the kickstand to the bike and getting off, running up the path to the house. The airlock door was ruined, wrenched open and broken to the point that he could slip right inside, which he did so carefully.  
  
There’s a dark coldness to the house that York had never felt before. It was usually so full of life, with the kids running around, laughing and playing, while the older brothers all tried to balance life. But now… there was nothing.   
  
York swallows back the hard lump in his throat that was threatening to choke him and resists the urge to throw off his helmet so he can get a better looks around the house.   
  
The first thing he sees is blood on the floor, just like Delta had, and he knows that if he was to take the same path his friend did upstairs then he’d be just as disappointed with what he found.  
  
What disturbed him more than the blood was the sight of Delta’s glasses, abandoned on the floor near the stairs. One of the lens were shattered. He was gone.  
  
They were all gone.  
  
With his heart pounding and a toxic mix of anger and panic burning in his chest York pulls out his comm. Something fucked up was going on, that much they had known with Epsilon going missing. But now… he had the worst feeling that this was just the start of something much worse than a missing teenager and his worried family.

He needed help.

**Author's Note:**

> Come talk to me on tumblr! :)
> 
> http://sights-sounds-and-rain.tumblr.com


End file.
